PZU Zycie head Wieczerzak out after 3-month fight

The new supervisory board of Poland's leading life insurer, PZU Zycie, on Saturday dismissed the company's president Grzegorz Wieczerzak. The move brings PZU Zycie back under the control of its parent company, Powszechny Zaklad Ubezpieczen (PZU). The Treasury Ministry had been seeking for three months to oust Wieczerzak, but his removal had been difficult to achieve. In the first place the original supervisory board that was supposed to dismiss him had to be dissolved, and then it had proved impossible to call an early shareholders' meeting to appoint a new supervisory board because one of the minority shareholders supported Wieczerzak. Finally, Treasury Minister Aldona Kamela-Sowinska convinced the National Insurance Supervisory Office (PUNU) to use its authority to summon a shareholders' meeting, a move Wieczerzak claims was illegal. He has been replaced by Krzysztof Mastalerz, who previously headed PZU's capital investments unit. (Gazeta Wyborcza, p.24, Reuters) T.J.